Mixing (German) salt - did you know?

[Alexander1312]

I had issues with the precipitation of the Fauna Marin salt when mixing it a week in advance of using it again. I'm mixing 55 gallons weekly at the moment, and after three months, I felt I needed to clean the Brute container (white).

For the record, I have seen similar precipitation with the Tropic Marin salt when I used it before, but at that time, I did not need to mix a lot of water.

Therefore, I felt I needed to re-examine how I should be mixing the salt correctly.

Three years or so ago, when I started reefing, I thought I had to heat the water to the target temperature, add the salt, and keep the pump running as strongly as possible to achieve a good mix. After a day or so and checking the salinity, I would turn off the heater and keep the pump running until the water is used.

It turns out that this is not advisable and can lead to the precipitation of trace elements.

The recommended practice is to mix these high-quality salts, i.e., FM/TM, for only a short period of time / a few minutes (!), without heating the water, unless you use it right away, and if you use it for more than a 10% water change. Ideally, the salt should be used within 4 hours of mixing; however, it can remain in the container without mixing and heating for an extended period.

I was not aware of this and thought I would share it in case anyone else was unaware or wanted to comment.

 

[JVU]

I mix up Tropic Marin salt with flow and heat and leave it that way for variable amounts of time, sometimes a couple hours, sometimes a couple weeks. Sometimes I leave the heater on during storage, sometimes I don’t. I generally do leave the flow on during storage, but sometimes I don’t. I haven’t had issues with precipitation under any of these scenarios.

 

[Alexander1312]

I mix up Tropic Marin salt with flow and heat and leave it that way for variable amounts of time, sometimes a couple hours, sometimes a couple weeks. Sometimes I leave the heater on during storage, sometimes I don’t. I generally do leave the flow on during storage, but sometimes I don’t. I haven’t had issues with precipitation under any of these scenarios.

That's interesting. So you never have to clean your saltwater mixing container?

 

[Alexander1312]

I used the Tropic Marin salt in my first year of reefing and always had brown residue (from iron precipation apparantly). It could come from the way I heat the water, add salt, mix, and then cool down (to not waste energy while not using the water for a week) and then heat up again before water change. This might or in fact is the wrong way of doing it. I also have (intentionally) a white container, so residue is much more visible .

Still, it looks like there is no point in heating the water (or mix for extended period), unless right before a large water change and if you worry about temperature differences. That was the main point of this post.

 

[JVU]

That's interesting. So you never have to clean your saltwater mixing container?

I used the Tropic Marin salt in my first year of reefing and always had brown residue (from iron precipation apparantly). It could come from the way I heat the water, add salt, mix, and then cool down (to not waste energy while not using the water for a week) and then heat up again before water change. This might or in fact is the wrong way of doing it. I also have (intentionally) a white container, so residue is much more visible .

Still, it looks like there is no point in heating the water (or mix for extended period), unless right before a large water change and if you worry about temperature differences. That was the main point of this post.

Right. I use other salts sometimes if I have them on hand so I have to clean some then. I’m using a grey brute for mixing so I’m possibly blissfully ignorant compared to using a white brute. But either way I don’t think it matters much. My impression when I see a film of junk is that it’s more likely biological anyway. Precipitated iron or other metals would not come off easily.

Agree there’s not much point in heating it except for large water changes. And even then you can heat it right before.